Democratic states train non-doctors on providing abortions to expand US access
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From Washington to Connecticut, pharmacists and healthcare workers pioneer efforts to limit abortion barriers. Democratic states across the country are embarking on a pioneering effort to increase access to abortion by teaching people who are not doctors to offer and perform the procedure.
![[people outside hold up signs with messages such as ‘abortion pills forever’ and ‘stop prosecuting abortion’]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/bb080d2edf4fb2baa11c9d18013b9c121feff4a1/0_153_4610_2768/master/4610.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
In Washington state, a first-of-its-kind pilot program called the Pharmacist Abortion Access Project announced this week that it trained 10 pharmacists to prescribe abortion pills; so far, they have prescribed abortions to 43 people. With Roe v Wade gone and abortion now all but eliminated in a dozen or so states, the project is the latest attempt to expand access to the procedure in the parts of the country that still allow it. Connecticut and Delaware have in recent years passed legislation to permit physician assistants, midwives and some nurses to perform abortions, while Oregon, Maryland and Illinois are now devoting millions of state dollars to programs that train similar professions in the procedure.
“Even in Washington state, where abortion is legal, people are facing barriers to accessing abortion care – especially people who are struggling to make ends meet, who live in rural areas or don’t have easy access to reproductive health care,” said Beth Rivin, the Pharmacist Abortion Access Project’s managing director and president of Uplift International, which partnered with the online pharmacy Honeybee Health to dispense the abortion pills. “This expands abortion access by bringing a new profession into abortion provision.”.
